My post How to Organize All of Your Child’s School Papers in Just One Box has gone viral on Pinterest these last few weeks, so I thought I would follow that up with another post regarding how I store other non-school paper keepsakes for our children since I've had a lot of people private messaging me and asking me about that.
Like the school papers box,
I’m going to show you how to fit an entire life’s worth of keepsakes
(birth-college) into just one box as well.
For this project, you will
need the same supplies as you did for the school papers box:
1 Hanging file box for each
child
Labels for the outside of
each of the boxes
Chalk Markers for your
labels
1 Set of hanging file folders for each child (I needed 26 per box)
Manila folders (I needed 4-5
per box)
Go ahead and load up on all of these items so you can do one for School Paper Keepsakes and one for Non-School Paper Keepsakes for each member of your family! I even have one for myself!
I chose to use a different color of hanging folders for each child for this project, but you could also use the same color of folders if you would rather everything match. Personally, I like having the different colors because it makes each box easier to identify. Jacob’s school papers box is blue and his non-school keepsake papers box is green. Olivia’s school papers box is pink and her non-school keepsake papers box is purple. Easy peasy.
I chose to use a different color of hanging folders for each child for this project, but you could also use the same color of folders if you would rather everything match. Personally, I like having the different colors because it makes each box easier to identify. Jacob’s school papers box is blue and his non-school keepsake papers box is green. Olivia’s school papers box is pink and her non-school keepsake papers box is purple. Easy peasy.
The boxes I used for both
keepsake boxes are these here. I love
them because they are slightly longer than the others which gives you a few
extra inches of room for storage. I also
love the split-lid. It really comes in
handy when you’re filing so you don’t have to take off the entire lid. These, these, these, and these are also good
options, or you could always use some of the cardboard banker’s boxes for a
cheaper version.
I love these chalkboard labels and these chalk markers to label the outside of the boxes… I have used
those on LOADS of boxes throughout our house!
And I love these hanging folders from Amazon… they come in every color of the rainbow and they are WAY
cheaper on Amazon than I’ve ever been able to find at any office supply store,
including Walmart.
These are the manila folders
I purchased to go inside the hanging file folders. I use these all the time for my regular
files, so eventually my box of 100 will get used. Plus they were only $10 for 100.
Before I get into the
details of each box, keep in mind, you do not need to save every single thing
that your kids receive/make!! While they
will most likely love having this little time capsule in a box, they will not
want ten boxes of every single thing that they ever had as a child! Take it from someone who knows from
experience. ;o) So before you get started, keep this in mind
– BE RUTHLESS! You only need to save a
random sample of stuff from each of their years of life!
Now that you have that in
the forefront of your mind (and you’re going to keep it in the forefront of
your mind the entire time you work on this) let’s get started!
The first thing you need to
do is set up your keepsake boxes. These
particular keepsake boxes that I’m discussing today are for all non-school
keepsake papers such as birthday cards, holidays cards, artwork made at home,
professional pictures, little notes from friends, letters from grandparents,
etc.
First, you will label the
outside of each box using your labels and chalk markers. Hang the folders inside, and then it’s time
to plan your categories. I have three
unique categories at the front, and then I have one folder for each year of our
childrens’ lives.
Here are the categories I
used (I will elaborate down below):
Artwork
In the Media
Professional Pictures
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
Artwork –
This hanging file will contain all artwork that each child created at home. Artwork they made at school goes in the
School Papers Keepsakes Box. And just like with the
School Papers Keepsakes Box, I didn’t save every single thing they ever made at home…
only my favorites.
In the Media
– This hanging file will contain all newspaper articles, newsletters, and publications
in which the kids have been published.
Jacob has already been in our local newspaper once and he was also
published in a local magazine as well, so I thought that these would be really
neat for him to be able to see one day when he’s older. Now, if you so choose, you could just file
these away by year instead of devoting an entire file to this category, but I
liked the idea of keeping all of these types of keepsakes together!
Professional Pictures – This hanging file will contain copies of all
professional pictures taken of each child during their life (aside from school-related
pictures… those go in the School Papers Keepsake Boxes).
I divided this hanging file into four smaller files:
1. Baby – This file holds copies of all of the photos
from each session from their first year of life. We did four sessions during each of their
first years of life for their panels in our dining room (newborn photos, heads
up photos, sit-up photos, and stand-up photos) so copies of these will go in
there. I also took monthly pictures for
their first year of life, so those are in there, too.
2. Birthdays – I do a “birthday chalkboard” for each
child for every birthday they have, and we always take a picture of them with
it on their birthday each year. I have
copies of each of these in this file.
3. Family Portraits – We take a family picture every
year for Easter, our beach trip, 4th of July, Halloween (just the kids in their
costumes), Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve, and we also take professional
family portraits in the fall each year.
Copies of each of these are filed in this folder in chronological order
and they are labeled on the back with the event and the year. If you prefer, you could always have separate
folders for each event, but I prefer to just keep them all together because otherwise,
there would be folder overload.
4. Santa Visits – We also visit Santa Clause every year and
I know these are pictures the kids will cherish one day, so I have a folder for
them as well. And we’ve been seeing the
same Santa since Jacob was born. I’m
going to be so sad when he doesn’t do it anymore!
Obviously your Pictures folder
categories may look a little different than mine if you have other pictures you’d
like to save, so just customize it to your liking! I have been thinking that I also might
eventually add a folder for ultrasound and belly pictures from when I was
pregnant with them, too!
Yearly Folders
The rest of the keepsake box
contains folders for each of the years of the kids’ lives. Jacob was born in 2011, but I started his
folders at 2010 since he received some cards and keepsakes when I was pregnant
with him. And Olivia was born in 2014
but I started her folders at 2013 for the same reason.
You will now file all
keepsakes that don’t fall into one of the first three categories in these
yearly folders. Each time I see
something I want to keep, I just file it in chronological order for that
year. Here are some of the things that
we file in the yearly folders:
-Copies of their birth
announcements
-Copies of their birthday
party invitations
-Birthday cards (although I
don’t save all of them… we’d be overloaded)
-Lists of gifts they received
at parties (I don’t always write these down, though)
-Special drawings or notes
from grandparents or friends
-Valentines from special
friends
-Valentine’s Day cards from
us and grandparents
-Easter cards (the
grandparents give one each year)
-Halloween cards
(grandparents again)
-Christmas cards from friends
at school
-A copy of our family Christmas
card that we send out each year
-Any other paper keepsakes
that might come up!
And that’s it!
This box takes a little bit
of time to set up (mostly because of all of the picture developing you have to
do), but it’s ridiculously easy to maintain once it’s done!
A couple of things to note:
1. I do not put tickets to movies and other events in this
box because I have those organized in a special Ticket Keepsake Book (I’ll have
to share that sometime, too). However,
you could always add ticket stubs to the yearly files if you’d prefer.
2. I do also have a small Newborn Keepsake Box for each
child that I’ll have to share some day, too.
I think I might move their birth announcements into those boxes.
And I know it seems like a
lot to some people to have all of these different keepsake boxes, but it’s
really not. For each child I have the
following:
1 Life Papers Keepsake Box
1 “Things” Keepsake Box (toys,
stuffed animals, and the Newborn Keepsake Box and Ticket Keepsake Book fits in
here, too)
1 Clothes Keepsake Box (I
only save my very favorites)
That’s four boxes for each
child and they all stack nicely on one side of each of their closets. These four boxes will be all I need until
they graduate and leave our house. I won’t
ever allow myself to have more than these four (because believe me, I could go
crazy!), so I only keep the most special stuff!
If I do ever run out of room in one of the boxes, I will remove
something else to make more room... I will not be adding extra boxes!
I already did a post on the School Papers Keepsake Box and I also plan to do blog posts about the “Things”
Keepsake Box as well as the “Clothes” Keepsake Box! Once I do, I’ll do one big post to tie
everything together!
Stay tuned!!
And FYI, this is how I store my keepsakes, too! Yearly folders are the way to go, people!
And remember, if you want to
follow along with me on my journey to simplify my entire life in 2018, you can
do so HERE. I post updates in Instagram Stories frequently, and if you missed any of them, just click on the “Simplify”
story highlights in my bio. They’re all
there!
Don't forget to link up with us below!
Don't forget to link up with us below!
Your Hosts!
*Linking up with Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday and Mix and Match Mama for What's Up Wednesday.
I need to go back through the boy's boxes and do this. looks fabulous!! Happy Wednesday beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis is so impressive and definitely something I'll look back on. It'll be hard to narrow it down to a few things LOL! xo, Biana- BlovedBoston
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I have all my kids pictures in scrapbooks! But I’m so far behind.
ReplyDeleteI love that! I have a file box like that I used when I taught Sunday School. I kept construction paper in it. I will have to use that for photos and such since it's just the two of us. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of like my memory boxes but yours are much more organized!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this!! Now I just need to find time to make them!! Such great ideas!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great break down of the folders! I love this idea!
ReplyDeleteI really want to go back and organize all the things for my kids now. They are teens, but it would be so good to have everything put together. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteGirlfriend - this is amazing!!! I'm ordering more totes today to make this happen! I took your blogging advice and went for it with the kids' school papers and I LOVE the outcome! Also, I received your email about the tote size! Thank you! Seriously...this will be my weekend project and I'm pumped! You're a genius!!!
ReplyDeleteYES! I love this idea! Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteI think I told you this already, but my mom did scrapbooks for us - one for birth through 8th grade, and then one for high school. I love the idea of doing this, though! The kids will definitely appreciate having all these items organized so well, and not having loads and loads of items - just the perfect amount!
ReplyDeleteI love how organized you are! I really need to do this. All of Mason's stuff from Pre-K until now is in a huge tote! I need to get my life together. ha! Thanks for the tips! You have motivated me.
ReplyDeleteYou are the organizing QUEEN!! I so desperately wish I could be like you but I lack the motivation. LOL!
ReplyDeleteThis is so organized and so impressive. What an incredible gift this will be for your kids one day! It's inspiring me to get more organized and do the same for my kids. I agree with your comment about being ruthless when sorting through things. My parents kept way too much of my childhood stuff and it's not organized in any way, so it is actually a burden when they give me random cardboard boxes of old stuff that they kept in their basement and now want to clear out now that I have a house!
ReplyDeleteYES! I need to start organizing all the sweet projects she brings home from "school" <3
ReplyDeleteGreen Fashionista
Love this! Have you found an of the file boxes for cheaper? I dont need 5 of them and it looks like I cant buy just 2!
ReplyDeleteI haven't. When I first linked the boxes, they were available to buy in one-packs and two-packs, but they've since sold out. :o( Keep checking back and maybe they will restock?
DeleteThis is AMAZING! Definitely saving this for later!!
ReplyDeleteThey will love having these when they are older!!!
ReplyDeleteI seriously need to get on this. I have loads of cute art work, cards and things that I need to put away.
ReplyDeleteHanging folders are such a lifesaver! I love the idea of a separate box for each kid.
ReplyDeleteSierra Beautifully Candid
I am so impressed by your organization!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is an infant so I'm setting these up now with not much to go in them, but I'm wondering why is it important to separate out school vs. non-school keepsake papers? Wouldn't it work to do everything by year? I don't want to have to change my system later!
ReplyDeleteHi! What do you do with things like Mother’s Day cards they make or “I love Daddy” notes? Do you put them in their non-school boxes or you’re own personal box?
ReplyDeleteHi Elenn, anything that the kids make for me is kept in my own personal keepsake box! And anything they make for my husband is stored in his office. He has his own little spot for keepsakes. I hope this helps!
Delete